The Paznic Detachment takes over the command of the Air Policing mission in Romania

• The Detachment’s military personnel officially take up the enhanced Air Policing mission (eAP) on NATO’S eastern flank

The Mihail Kogălniceanu Military Base in Romania hosted the military ceremony by which the military personnel of the Spanish Air and Space Force officially take up the mission of enhancing the capabilities of air policing on NATO’s eastern flank, within the framework of the enhanced Air Policing (eAP). It is the Paznic Detachment, under the national operational command of the Operations Command (MOPS in Spanish).

The commitment of the deployed force will be to contribute to strengthening NATO’s air defence on the eastern flank by supporting the air policing missions. For this purpose, technical, operational and support personnel deployed at the Mihail Kogălniceanu Military Base, located near the Black Sea, have been deployed.

The ceremony, presided by the Ministry of National Defence of Romania, Angel Tîlvăr, was attended by the Commander of the NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre Torrejón (CAOC-TJ), Lieutenant General Juan Pablo Sánchez de Lara, the Chief of the Romanian Air Force Staff, Major-General Leonard-Gabriel Baraboi, and Brigadier Enrique Fernández Ambel.

The ceremony started with a flyover by a Spanish F-18 and a Romanian F-16 airrcraft, and with interpretation of the Spanish and Romanian national anthems. Later on, General Sánchez de Lara gave a speech and handed over the certificate of capabilities to the Force Commander of the Paznic Detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Rafael Ichaso Franco.

With this mission, the commitment of Spain with the Atlantic Alliance and the security of the territories of all the allied countries is evident.

The enhanced Air Policing mission (eAP)

The enhanced Air Policing mission (eAP) is part of the Alliance’s collective effort for airspace surveillance of its members, in particular those in the southern area of application, such as Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. The allied deployment in southeastern Europe is conducted under the NATO’s command within the framework of the allied collective defence.

When allied radars pick up an aircraft of interest from among the daily 30,000 air movements inside the European airspace, a verification test of the aircraft is carried out in case it does not use its transponder, it is not in radio contact with civilian air traffic control or it has not filed a flight plan.

Were any of the previous events to happen, the runway communicates with one of the two existing NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centres (CAOC). The Commander of the respective CAOC, the CAOC Torrejón in this case, decides whether or not to launch Quick Reaction Alert Interceptor aircrafts with the aim of intercepting and visually identifying the aircraft.

The Spanish Armed Forces are a regular partner of the NATO Air Policing, along with the patrol mission of national airspace under the control of the NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre Torrejón (CAOC TJ).

Spain contributes to the Bulgaria-Romania eAP with human and material resources. In addition, an Air Defence Unit (UDAA in Spanish) has been deployed in Estonia, and a radar, in Romania, of the Mobile Air Control Group (GRUMOCA in Spanish), with around 40 soldiers in charge of maintaining the equipment’s activity.